A disease puts us at dis ease. No one looks forward to being a patient
(Latin pati: to endure/suffer), but no one is immune. Young, old, rich,
poor, black, or white. To be healed is to be back to being whole,
literally speaking.

Illness is common. It's a sign of our familiarity with the diseases
that words relating to them have entered the language as metaphors.
We use them in a non-medical context.

This week we'll see five terms that relate to diseases. But don't worry.
Words are not fomites. You can't
catch anything from these words.

measly

PRONUNCIATION:

(MEE-zlee, MEEZ-lee)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Ridiculously small or bad.
2. Infected with measles.

ETYMOLOGY:

Initially, the word measly was used to describe a pig infected with measles,
which is probably derived from Middle Dutch masel (blemish) and its spelling
influenced by Middle English mesel (leprous, leprosy). Earliest documented
use: 1598.

USAGE:

"This summer inmates in Argentina decided they would no longer accept
measly payment for the jobs they do in prison."
Gilding the Cage; The Economist (London, UK); Aug 17, 2013.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. -Dwight D. Eisenhower, US general and 34th president (1890-1969)